On the Astros: Astros rip Cardinals 8-2 for fifth straight win

Tipping point: The Astros made Jaime Garcia throw 40 pitches in the first inning, 20 strikes and 20 balls, 12 of the latter coming on three walks. The 0-2 offering to Chris Johnson goes in the scorebook as a strike. Well, it was struck, so…

On the mound: Bud Norris was shaky at the start and at the end, but he was smooth as can be in the middle, retiring 11 in a row. Finishing off outings well is the next step for him.

At the plate: It wasn’t a spectacular day at the top of the order, as the Astros got no hits from the table-setters, but they took full advantage of the bombs from below as Chris Johnson and Justin Maxwell got going early.

Under the radar: This series features the two best shortstops in the league so far, and you could have gotten pretty good money for the exacta of Jed Lowrie and Rafael Furcal, who each had a hit (Lowrie’s a home run) and a walk. They don’t, however, cash any betting tickets 1/6 into the race.

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There’s a reason that when the Astros were 8-14, so much of the talk was about how many close games they were in, their positive run differential and the like.

It wasn’t making excuses on the inside or any homerism from the outside. It’s that bad records overlayed with good stats tend to correct themselves. Run differential is a better predictor of future success than the actual record is, and better times were clearly in the Astros’ future.

But who knew the correction would come so quickly? What was 8-14 has now already turned into 13-14 with the fifth straight win being Saturday’s 8-2 thrashing of the St. Louis Cardinals, powered by Chris Johnson’s grand slam and ensured with Jed Lowrie’s two-run shot with plenty of Bud Norris in between. The win also clinched the Astros’ second straight series win of what is now a 5-0 homestand.

“When you play a 162-game season and are as competitive as we are every single game, you are going to win your fair share, or you should,” said Lowrie, a true statistician. “I don’t think anyone got down when we were losing those games because we knew we were playing well, so that was one of those situations where you just have to stay the course.”

The Astros have outhomered their opponents 8-0 on the homestand, and that barrage continued early on Saturday when Johnson followed three walks by Jaime Garcia with his first career grand slam. Johnson was one strike from ending the inning scoreless and on the hook for the only run of the game on his error in the top of the first, but he smoked an 0-2 slider to the back of the Crawford Boxes in left for his third home run – all on this homestand.

Redemption felt pretty sweet.

“Bud made a good pitch, had two strikes on Jay, and I booted it,” Johnson lamented. “I really, really wanted to do something good in that at-bat, and he threw a slider out over the plate, and I was able to get it over.”

Until Carlos Lee’s double in the eighth, he and Justin Maxwell were the only Astros with a hit at all, but they made them count and used the walks to their advantage to pile on Garcia. Lowrie added a two-run home run in the eighth, which had been ruled a double until the umpires went to replay and found that it did reach the Crawford Boxes.

But you don’t build a winning streak on hitting alone, and Norris was outstanding as he usually is against the Cardinals. He’s owned the always solid and currently league-best offense to the tune of a 2.17 ERA since his 2009 debut.

Norris gave up the only unearned run in six innings, and perhaps more impressively, worked out of trouble, which has been a struggle lately. He loaded the bases on walks in the sixth like Garcia did in the first, and Brad Mills came out for a talk. Mills stuck with his righthander, and Norris made him look good, getting an easy bouncer from Yadier Molina.

“He wanted to go to the pen and I don’t blame him for that, but I know that for me and my development, I have to get better in those situations,” Norris said. “The last couple games, unfortunately with two outs I’ve been giving up bad hits – not necessarily bad pitches, but I need to bear down better.”

On his 91st and final pitch, he did, and the bullpen pitched three largely uneventful innings from there, giving the Astros a streak of five games when they have scored at least four in all of them and haven’t allowed more than four in any of them.